PARIS -- Nokia announced a new lower-end Windows Phone today, the $249 Nokia Lumia 620, hoping customers will be drawn to its rounded corners and bright colors when it launches in January of 2013.

The Lumia 620 is a 3G model with a 3.8-inch screen, 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, a back camera that'll shoot 720p video, a 5-megapixel front camera for video chat, near-field communications (NFC) technology, and loudspeakers, the company said. But Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia's executive vice president of design, put the new colors front and center as he unveiled the phone at the LeWeb conference here.

The phone comes in base colors, but using Nokia's "dual shot" approach, transparent but colored covers that form new color combinations.

"With the 620, we wanted to introduce some bold blends," Ahtisaari said. "We use a technique called dual-shot application of color, with an opaque layer underneath then a translucent layer above." A yellow base becomes lime green with a cyan cover and orange with a red cover, for example.

The phone will will cost $249 or about 190 euros, shipping first in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa first and other markets later, he said.

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Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and covers browsers, Web development, digital photography and new technology. In the past he has been CNET's beat reporter for Google, Yahoo, Linux, open-source software, servers and supercomputers. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces.
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